Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to information handling systems and more particularly to an Open Compute Project network mezzanine card that may be converted to a PCIe riser.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Many instances of information handling include a motherboard which may be installed in server chassis, such as in data centers. Examples of a chassis include a rack chassis or a tower chassis. A motherboard generally includes connection points for Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) cards or PCI express (PCIe) cards. PCI cards are used to connect peripheral devices such as modems, sound cards, or other hardware devices to the information handling system. PCIe connectors situated at the rear of the motherboard are arranged to allow a series of vertical PCIe cards to be connected in a tower chassis, or to utilize vertical riser boards that allow for horizontal PCIe cards in low profile rack chassis. By way of non-limiting example, an example motherboard may include as many as six PCIe connection points for connecting PCIe cards.
Newer servers however have begun to implement Open Compute Project (OCP) network mezzanine cards as the industry standard network form factor. A typical OCP mezzanine card has the width of three PCIe connector slots on a server motherboard, and the connectors required to adopt this mezzanine card take the space of and eliminate three possible connection points for additional PCIe cards.
While the OCP network mezzanine card is becoming the industry standard network form factor, a large percentage of server customers use only a lower bandwidth (e.g., 1 Gb) networking solution. An example motherboard server may come pre-populated with a LAN on Motherboard (LOM) low bandwidth networking solution, and the OCP network mezzanine card is not necessary. For this set of customers, the OCP connection points that would be used for higher bandwidth networking solutions would not only go unutilized, but would create wasted space where PCIe lanes would have existed in older servers.
There is a need for a method for repurposing the connectivity of an OCP network mezzanine card for use as one or more general purpose PCIe lanes by utilizing an OCP mezzanine riser with connection points for PCIe cards.